HP-71B and some (to me) interesting modules

[JanS]

All,
I'd like to give some feedback to replies to my initial post which started this thread as well as a first progress update on where I am with regard to preserving the two W&W Eproms for posterity.

(08-23-2022 01:47 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  ...This must be about as much memory as one can fit into an HP-71B!

My first association with "W&W" and "VRB" is "Wüstenrot & Württembergische" and "Volks- und Raiffeisenbanken". The first two are a building society and an insurance company in Stuttgart, Germany, the latter a group of banking cooperatives in Germany.

Yup - it is more or less maxed out. "W&W" is definitely referring to W&W Datentechnik and "VRB" might be any Volks- and RaiffeisenBank - I wrote to Wilfried Kötz, he deems it entirely possible that W&W burned those Eproms some 30 years ago, however he has no recollection of this specific set (I supplied the CAT outputs together with my inquiry)

A card reader would be "nice to have" along with some cards, but it is not something that's high on my TBA list.

(08-23-2022 03:40 PM)KimH Wrote:  Oh my - you have clearly made a good buy here - this is the king of configs! Congratulations!!

I have replaced the battery in all my CMT Card Reader "ports" - not a big challenge if you know how to handle a soldering iron (and watch polarity - obviously) - they can be bought in all sorts of sizes - mine are smaller than what was in there, with wires welded on them AND has the "Heat Shrunk" cover. about 3€ a piece "Dell BackUp Battery" is printed on them

The flat battery for the 64k I also have - it still has a voltage (I took it out and stored it) - I think the right expression is "Unobtainium".. have not found anything to replace it.

Kim, thank you for the tip about the Dell Backup Battery Type - much appreciated and now on order for my replacement project.

The flat "Unobtainium" one in my 64k module has about 2,2 to 2,0 Volts left - I pulled it and it's now in Storage in a little plastig bag to protect from accidental shorting.

(08-23-2022 05:46 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  ... I'm a bit confused about your configuration though. In the SHOW PORT output, it shows a 16KB ROM (or EPROM) which you list as being a 64K RAM module, and also 32K RAM in ports 4.00 and 4.01, which would have to be the 64KB RAM module. I assume these two modules were swapped between you initial SHOW PORT and later description, is that the case?

The EPROM in Port-2 looks uninteresting (all files are BASIC) however the names have no meaning for me as I don't read German. Can someone suggest Anglicized versions of the filenames?

OTOH, the module in Port-3 looks quite interesting with several new looking LEX files.

I suspect the modules are used as a pair, with the P2 module containing all the application specific code, and P3 containing utility keywords and BASIC (sub?) programs (INDEX2, PRINT), and it will be interesting to explore these once available.

While waiting for your PIL-Box, suggest you read up on the ROMCOPY LEX file, and also start to explore Joe Horn's Online LIF Disk Project, a collection of most of the community LEX and utility files for the 71B, 75C and a little 41C stuff.

Hi Bob,
your's and J-F's suspicions/assumptions are of course correct - I mixed up the order of the modules while documenting / photographing and did not proof read my initial post thoroughly enough. Thanks for mentioning Joe's project - I had already stumbled over that link and I will definitely explore that resource a lot more. As I'm still new to the 71, I am reading the user manual at the moment to get a hang of general operation. Once I feel a little more secure operating the machine and have all the tools in place, I will probably come back here for guidance on romdumping.

With regard to anglizied module names, there isn't really much, other than everything xxxDRUCK probably refers to printing and SICHERN means to backup, so there is that.

(08-23-2022 07:09 PM)Garth Wilson Wrote:  Maybe someone here knows otherwise; but I think the batteries in the RAM modules are only there to hold the memory if you remove the modules from the computer such they they would not be able to use the computer's power. As long as you leave the module in the port and the computer can keep its onboard RAM and clock alive, the modules should be fine without their own battery. I have a CMT 96K card-reader-port RAM and 64K front-port RAM in mine.

Hi Garth,
that works fine as long as you have a means of powering the 71 once the 4 AAAs need replacing. I don't have an external power supply for the machine, so thats on the TBA list for sure.

(08-23-2022 07:16 PM)Jurgen Keller Wrote:  I think the W&W VRB module is this one:
W&W VRB Funktionsmodul für den HP 71

It contains a bunch of functions, as listed on the next page. Some exotic ones like "KOJAK: A howling BEEP command" are also included. Would love to hear that sound! ;-)

Hi Juergen, sorry - apparently no such luck and so, no KOJAK MP3 to post here. This must be a different EPROM set AFAIK.

So, for now, here's what will happen next on my end:
The PIL Box Kit will show up at my door in the near future as I'm assured by J-F.
I'll get to soldering the kit and then I'll DIY an HP-IL Cableset - there's a great ressource here: How to Make Your Own HP-IL Cables to get the connection going (unless somebody want's to part with a surplus cable)
I'll read up on the rom dumping procedure as suggested by Bob.
Once ready, I'll dump the roms and make them available for preservation and posterity.
I'm in this for the learning expirience and I really appreciate the generous private offer from one of the forum members to exchange my roms for same type versions programmed to my liking, however, I'd rather use the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of this machine along the way - so it may take a little longer until the roms become available, but it's not like that they have been hot off of the flasher. They live inside the machine, UV erase windows covered and will probably do so without a problem until they have been dumped. At that point, I'll likely have to make a decision on what to do with them, but that is still some time away in the future

So, in the meantime, stay healthy and keep calculating,
Jan